Dear Senator Lee
I just recently saw an article that the Treasury Secretary was recommending that Congress again raise the debt ceiling and that not doing so might harm the economy. The tendency for the past few years has been that when it's time to raise the debt ceiling or to pass a budget if often turns into a "showdown." Whether or not this happens there's a few issues that I want to be represented on.
One issue is Health Care reform. There's an interesting article about some problems with the affordable care act that don't seem to be getting that much attention. It is authored by Jon Kingsdale who was involved in the "RomneyCare" health insurance policy in Massachusetts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beyond-healthcaregov-obamacares-other-challenges/2013/11/08/26cd7e3c-4702-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_print.html
The reason I want it said like this is that if it is then it would be hard to not agree with. Whereas if people only hear the old message about how Obamacare is going to kill jobs, hurt the deficit, etc. then people will say "good grief, we've heard enough from these TEA Party guys who are not willing to compromise, let's vote them out this fall."
I just recently saw an article that the Treasury Secretary was recommending that Congress again raise the debt ceiling and that not doing so might harm the economy. The tendency for the past few years has been that when it's time to raise the debt ceiling or to pass a budget if often turns into a "showdown." Whether or not this happens there's a few issues that I want to be represented on.
One issue is Health Care reform. There's an interesting article about some problems with the affordable care act that don't seem to be getting that much attention. It is authored by Jon Kingsdale who was involved in the "RomneyCare" health insurance policy in Massachusetts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beyond-healthcaregov-obamacares-other-challenges/2013/11/08/26cd7e3c-4702-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_print.html
A health insurance exchange is more
than a Web site. It is an insurance store, and to manage it well
requires insurance experience, technical know-how, and savvy marketing
and sales tactics. The administration has a few months to put together a
management team with these skills, dedicated exclusively to running the
world’s largest store for private insurance. The Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services have talented staff, and Jeffrey Zients,
a former budget official who’s been called up to help fix the federal
exchange’s online enrollment, may be just the guy to corral wayward
technology vendors. But selling insurance is not what policy analysts
and turnaround specialists do. I had 45 employees dedicated to operating
the Massachusetts Health Connector; California has budgeted more than
300. Who’s minding the federal store?
If the administration fails to
convince hundreds of insurers that the federal exchange will do a superb
job marketing their products next fall, what then?
Premiums will jump, Democrats will
blame “greedy” insurers, regulators will review rates and push for price
controls. And Republicans can credibly crow: “We told you so.”
Below is from an article I read from CBSnews. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/6-key-obamacare-dates-to-watch-for-in-2014/
What I've tried to do is make a good case that The Affordable Care Act is likely going to hurt the economy because nobody or not enough people are running a store that according to an expert should need hundreds of people. Furthermore the bill is passed so that if it hurts the economy nobody will see it until after the election. How is that justified?
You were one of 18 republican senators who voted against the bill that ended the government shutdown and raised the debt ceiling. Not even a week later hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans made the news for receiving notifications that they were going to loose their health insurance due to the affordable care act. President Obama said over and over again that someone who liked their health plan would not loose it on account of the ACA. People made a big deal about how his words turned out to be inaccurate but nobody vindicated the TEA party. Nobody said, "why didn't we listen to them."Nobody said, "I thought they didn't deserve to be taken seriously but it looks like they were right all along." And this is because no politician had the standing to say "see, this is what we said three weeks ago when the shutdown started." My belief is that the Republican party and especially the TEA Party might have the right ideas but what they don't have is their act together. Instead of a clear logical simple explanation for how and why the budget and the health care system needed to be changed, the only things anybody remembers hearing from the TEA party is Senator Cruz's reading of Dr. Seuss.
So far I have tried to represent 3 legitimate reasons to want to reform Health Care.
During the recent state of the union address the President said something like "let's not take another 40 something votes to repeal a law that is already helping millions of Americans." You were one of the senators the president was speaking to. I myself am a little sick of hearing the words "Obamacare" and "repeal" in the same sentence. But I do believe that there is an opportunity to reform the health system so as to address some of these concerns.
So if there's going to be another game of chicken over the debt ceiling here's the view I want to be represented.
"We have zero people managing the health insurance exchange when we need hundreds. And the bill is crafted so that premiums could go up but nobody will know until after the election which is an unfair advantage to the democrats."
Below is from an article I read from CBSnews. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/6-key-obamacare-dates-to-watch-for-in-2014/
Nov. 15, 2014: Open enrollment for 2015 starts
The two-month Obamacare open enrollment period for 2015 begins 11 days after Election Day -- which some Republicans have called all too convenient. "If premiums go through the roof in the first year of Obamacare, no one will know about it until after the election," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in response to the timeline.
The administration said it decided to delay the open enrollment period by a month since 2014 enrollment got off to such a slow start. The delay should give insurers more time to evaluate the Obamacare marketplace and set 2015 premiums accordingly.
What I've tried to do is make a good case that The Affordable Care Act is likely going to hurt the economy because nobody or not enough people are running a store that according to an expert should need hundreds of people. Furthermore the bill is passed so that if it hurts the economy nobody will see it until after the election. How is that justified?
You were one of 18 republican senators who voted against the bill that ended the government shutdown and raised the debt ceiling. Not even a week later hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans made the news for receiving notifications that they were going to loose their health insurance due to the affordable care act. President Obama said over and over again that someone who liked their health plan would not loose it on account of the ACA. People made a big deal about how his words turned out to be inaccurate but nobody vindicated the TEA party. Nobody said, "why didn't we listen to them."Nobody said, "I thought they didn't deserve to be taken seriously but it looks like they were right all along." And this is because no politician had the standing to say "see, this is what we said three weeks ago when the shutdown started." My belief is that the Republican party and especially the TEA Party might have the right ideas but what they don't have is their act together. Instead of a clear logical simple explanation for how and why the budget and the health care system needed to be changed, the only things anybody remembers hearing from the TEA party is Senator Cruz's reading of Dr. Seuss.
So far I have tried to represent 3 legitimate reasons to want to reform Health Care.
- State health insurance exchanges have dozens if not hundreds of people managing them whereas the nation-wide exchange doesn't seem to have any.
- The timetable of the bill is crafted so that if premiums go up (which according to Kingsdale will definitely happen) nobody will know until after the election which may be an unfair advantage to the democrats.
- Despite the president's promise, many are being told that they cannot keep the health coverage that they like.
During the recent state of the union address the President said something like "let's not take another 40 something votes to repeal a law that is already helping millions of Americans." You were one of the senators the president was speaking to. I myself am a little sick of hearing the words "Obamacare" and "repeal" in the same sentence. But I do believe that there is an opportunity to reform the health system so as to address some of these concerns.
So if there's going to be another game of chicken over the debt ceiling here's the view I want to be represented.
"We have zero people managing the health insurance exchange when we need hundreds. And the bill is crafted so that premiums could go up but nobody will know until after the election which is an unfair advantage to the democrats."
The reason I want it said like this is that if it is then it would be hard to not agree with. Whereas if people only hear the old message about how Obamacare is going to kill jobs, hurt the deficit, etc. then people will say "good grief, we've heard enough from these TEA Party guys who are not willing to compromise, let's vote them out this fall."
